Vodafone will begin opening Phones 4u stores from today [09/10/2014] and aims to have 130 converted by mid-November.

The operator will be reopening Phones 4U stores in Tooting and Dagenham today [09/10/2014]. With Sittingbourne, Stretford, Winsford, Peterborough and Bangor in Northern Ireland opening on Friday [10/10/2014].

The network said that it expects to have 130 of them reopen by mid-November, in time for Christmas. Although it did concede that the number of stores opening each week would vary.

The stores have been rebranded and given a Vodafone look and they will, in time, be fully refitted as part of the £100 million programme we announced earlier this year. However, the priority for the moment is to get them up and running as quickly as possible with the minimum of disruption.

Vodafone said that all the staff taken on as part of the acquisition of stores had already been working in ‘sister’ stores, undergoing training and going through their Vodafone induction. The former Phones 4U stores will open with a blend of Vodafone and Phones 4U staff, which the network said would allow them to share the benefits of their experience and make the transition to new IT systems seamless.